8 April 2011

I felt off-colour all day: achy around the kidneys and abdomen and my skin was strangely hypersensitive in places. Consequently I was not in best form when Emily and I stopped over at Ali's in Bredon, on our way to Fiona's. We arrived at 11 and Emily and Amelia (who is 4 months older) soon warmed up to each other.

Ali had reserved a table at the local pub so we strolled down there in the abnormally hot sunshine. There were so many blooms and butterflies that you could be forgiven for assuming it was June. Bredon is an idyllic village with many old sandstone cottages and I felt very envious of her life there. As Ali has also travelled extensively I asked her if she felt the urge to get out into the big wide world again but she said 'no'; that is encouraging, because I am very unsettled right now and can't see myself being happy in one location for long. For Emily's sake we need to put down some roots now though.

Under my new dietary regime, I decided that Emily and I would share our pub lunch - the only problem being that I had to order something I thought she would like. My plan worked well - there was plenty for both of us and I saved money into the bargain!

Back on the road, we were in serious danger of overheating - in early April for goodness' sake - but not much later Emily dropped off. I had been waiting for that; off went 'the wheels on the bus' and on went Snow Patrol. In fact, she slumbered all the way to Reading, waking just as we turned off the motorway. As always, she and Fern were soon hard at play in the garden.

Nick called around 7pm and Fi and I went to collect him from Reading station. He was full of tales of colleagues sloping off at 5, and packed Canary Wharf bars. I think he is enjoying the change of atmosphere in London and even if he starts early I am hopeful that he may get home early enough to see Emily from time to time. The need for that was highlighted at Emily's bedtime: due to her nap she was very energetic so she and Fern ended up going to bed at 10pm. I asked Nick to read to her and stay with her in the bedroom but she kicked off massively, insisting I stayed with her. After ten minutes of absolute hysterics I had to intervene as I was worried she would wake her cousins and I didn't think she was going to relent anyway. Truth to tell, I felt that we had brought it about by shunting her from pillar to post so much. I was not very kind to her, perhaps because I was feeling so duff, and she went off to sleep without any words exchanged between us. It wasn't much later before I turned in too; no idea what time Nick came to bed but so much for our last evening together for a month or more.